Do you work with or know a federal employee who has made a particularly noteworthy contribution to the public good? Then ’tis the season to put in a nomination for the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies) at servicetoamericamedals.org. The deadline is Jan. 17. The medals, given out by the Partnership for Public Service, span eight categories, including career achievement; science and environment; and homeland security and law enforcement. Three main criteria will be used in choosing the winners: On-the-job innovation; commitment to public service and impact of their work on meeting the needs of the nation, the…
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Tom Burger has spent his life dedicated to public service. Burger said it started with President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address in 1961, when Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” “That stimulated me to look into public service,” Burger said. As a young man, Burger served as a Marine in the Vietnam War during the Tet Offensive of 1968. After he left the Marines, Burger was still looking to serve. He turned to the federal government. Burger looked into working at the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Internal Revenue…
As an Army brat, Octavia Hall has always been around public service. She spent most of her life in Germany bouncing around several bases. Hall said it was both her family and her community who encouraged her to serve. “When I went out to the bus stop, I remember the soldiers coming over to talk to us about going to school, getting a good education, asking about our career goals. They contributed a lot to my wanting to serve,” Hall said. As military families do, Hall’s family moved again, this time to Maryland. In high school she was active in cheerleading and a singing-show group she compared to the…
A fixture in the federal community stepped down last night — in grand style. After more than 14 years at the helm of the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government, Patricia McGinnis yesterday passed the baton to interim successor Lynn Jennings, the Council’s executive vice president, at a gala dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington. As president and CEO of the Council, McGinnis led the council in many initiatives, including: serving as an early advocate for the expansion of electronic government; expanding the Excellence in Government Fellowship program, a leadership development program for senior government managers; promoting Public…